“Last week when it was a really nice week, nice weather outside, I was going for a walk and I realized that when I was away from the sun and I was just walking away that I couldn’t get away from my own shadow. If the sun was behind me I could never get away from my own shadow, but when I made my turn and I was facing the sun there was no shadow. I was free from my shadow. Oftentimes in the culture there’s this thought going around that’s like, ‘I’m okay. You’re okay. We’re all just okay and there’s nothing that needs to change, but how wrong that is because deep down inside we know our own sins. We know that things aren’t okay that things can be better and that’s why there’s a hope to move forward. In the Gospel today and also in the Gospel of John there’s always this motif of light and darkness and in the Gospel today it talks about how Jesus is the light and how we’re free to go into the light, that evil likes to stay in the darkness. There’s a saying that you’re only as sick as your secrets, the things that you keep in the dark. Think about your windshield. At night your windshield looks pretty clean, but have you ever on a sunny day you’re driving in the sun you can see every dirt on your windshield and then you realize, I need to get this washed. I need to get this cleaned. Sometimes that’s like us in our own lives. We’re afraid to step into the light because it would show our own sins, our own faults, but that’s what this season of Lent is all about. That’s why we have the disciplines of prayer, fasting and almsgiving to realize that I’m not really in control. I do struggle that I need God’s grace in my life. That’s why this season of Lent is kind of painful. It’s a struggle, but so that we can grow in deeper trust in relationship with God. St. Thomas Aquinas once said and I’m paraphrasing because I can’t remember the quote, that meditating on the cross is one of the deepest prayers that you could spend your whole life meditating about the crucifix and you’ll learn everything you’d need to know about god in the crucifixion and I think that’s true.
In today’s Gospel it talked about Moses lifting up the serpent. So too the son of God must be lifted up as well. Now what is that old story of Moses lifting up the serpent on his staff? It’s when in Exodus the Israelites were worshipping other gods and so God sent these serpents to bite them and they were dying from it and so they prayed to God, ‘God help us.’ And so he told Moses to lift this bronze serpent on the staff and all those who looked at it would be saved. Now what is the message there? If you look at the thing that is killing you then you will be saved. Sometimes we run away from our own pain, our struggles in our lives. We procrastinate and it makes things worse. God is saying, ‘Look at it. Look at your own sinfulness.’ But so too that image right there in the Old Testament is fulfilled in the New Testament in the crucifixion. That saying that if we look at the cross, the crucifixion of Christ right here then we will be saved. Show in us that God died for our sins, so yes it makes us look at our own sinfulness, but it should move us to hope.
In our Gospel the one line is John Chapter 3 verse 16. It basically tells the whole Gospel that Jesus came. God sent his only begotten son into the world that those who believe in Him will not perish, but have eternal life and that is our belief that in the crucifixion that God came so that we would be free, but it’s only if we are willing to look at it, look at it with hope, so to look at it so it reveals our sinfulness, but to move past that that he raises from the dead that we don’t have to be afraid of our sins. We don’t have to be afraid of the light and so too He gives us the sacraments to nurture us on this journey just like in Exodus he gives manna from Heaven so too in our day He gives us his own body in the Eucharist to sustain us in the journey not only the journey of Lent, but this pilgrimage of life He gives his own body. Even in the sacraments we participate in the death of Christ, but not only that we participate in the resurrection as well and that is the great hope for us. So as you come before the Lord today where Christ is truly present before you in the Eucharist be not afraid to step into the light to acknowledge your own sinfulness to acknowledge your need for God so as to be free to receive His grace in your life. Amen.”